Cadaver Mystery Lab

In the Kathy Reich’s novel, Deja Dead, a Forensic Anthropologist, named Dr. Temperance Brennan, recently moved to the Canadian province of Quebec to escape her divorce. There, Dr. Brennan works for the “Laboratoire de Medecine Legale”, a coroner’s office in the city of Montreal. The novel begins when Dr. Brennan is called to investigate bones found by two Quebec water workers at an abandoned monastery. At the scene, Dr. Brennan discovers the meticulously mutilated and dismembered remains of a female stashed in a series of trash bags. As the novel progresses, Dr. Brennan begins to notice a pattern amongst the remains brought to her lab: all victims were female, most dismembered with similar methods of disposal and evidence of mutilation.

In Chapter four Roach writes about the controversial topic of using cadavers in impact studies. At Wayne University Roach observes one cadaver being used in a simulated linear impact car crash (t bone car crash) and mentions that the cadaver, UM006, “is helping researchers figure out how much force a human shoulder… can withstand before it registers a serious injury” (Roach 87). Because of cadavers like UM006, we have made tremendous strides in automobile safety, and saved tens of thousands of lives (which could not have been done with crash test dummies). Roach also interviews Dennis Shanahan, an injury analysis and investigator of the TWA flight 800 crash in 1996. Shanahan was called in to investigate what happened to the plane, if it was a bomb (like most conspiracies claimed) where did it go off? This chapter focuses on how the cadaver’s injuries can help determine what happened to the plane. In Chapter 6 Roach studies another controversial topic: using cadavers for weapons research and ballistics testing. Roach talks about the history of using cadavers for ballistics testing, and how they are used today, and the ethical problems that come with it. Roach writes that researchers cope, “with a mix of compassion and emotional remove. ‘You treat them with dignity, and you kind of separate the fact that… you think of them as a specimen,’” (Roach 148). Chapter 7 was a shorter chapter devoted to experiments used to prove and

Chest cavities were emptied of blood with cheap metal soup ladles, the kind you’d see in cafeterias, and the autopsy tables were lubricated with whatever dish detergent happened to be on sale.” - Page 181, The Monster Mash

In the Casey Anthony case Jeff Ashton who is a former state attorney in Orange county Florida, and also the first prosecutor in the United States to get a conviction based on DNA decided to use a new Forensic method in the Anthony case. The smell of death would be the allowed as evidence for the first time ever. In the trunk of Anthony’s car was a stained area on the carpet and an odor. Ashton stated that the smell was that of human decomposition. That piece of carpet was removed, sealed and sent to Dr. Vass, a forensic anthropologist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Dr. Voss has been studying human decomposition at the University of Tennessee’s “body farm”.

The field of forensic anthropology is relatively young, with roots in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Its popularity continues to grow today, with TV shows like “Bones” and novels like “Coroner at Large.” The work of a forensic anthropologist is important in a historical and medicolegal context. Without the study of bones and death, lots of history would be lost forever, and murders would go unsolved.

During chapter three, human decay, is the main topic. Mary Roach goes to visit the University of Tennessee Medical Center. This is the only field research, in America, that focus on the decay of human bodies. Academics leave bodies to deteriorate in natural surroundings and then screen their “stages of chemical composition.” This information contributes to criminal investigations by making systematic standards to determine the time of death. Temperature, insect infestation, smell and other factors are monitored and

The Short-Term Influence of Body Position and Physical Activity on Arterial Blood Pressure and Electrocardiogram Wave Intervals

Through a little research on the internet, a website called “Bodies Revealed” informed me of the process used to preserve the bodies, which is known as “polymer preservation.” The bodies that are used first are embalmed according to standard procedures and perfused with a preserving agent to prevent the normal tissue decay that takes place after death. After the body is embalmed, a trained dissector prepares it, or a part of it, according to predetermined guidelines. Because of the degree of difficulty involved in dissecting a full body specimen, it can take several months to complete. If the dissector is working with individual organs, they can be prepared much more quickly. After the dissection is complete, the specimens are thoroughly rinsed in cold running water, which removes as much of the preserving agent as possible. Rinsing a full-body specimen can take up to one week to finish. After the rinsing, the specimen is ready to be dehydrated. They dehydrate the specimens by placing it in acetone, which acts to replace all of the tissue water present in the specimen. The specimen is then impregnated with a mixture of liquid silicone polymer and a crosslinker. The polymer hardens during a curing process, which leaves a dry, odorless specimen that doesn’t decompose. I had the

But how do you tell what the bodies are getting to? I’ll tell you! There are forensic scientists that study bodies and then try to figure out how, when, where, and why whoever had this body, died! And how do these scientists do it, you ask? I don’t know! But what I do know, is that the scientists look at the height and weight of the skeletons, and then determine what age they were, so that they can then identify who the person was, and what they looked like. By doing this these special scientists

In modern day, with all types of technology, there are numerous ways for an individual to die, whether it was a suicide, homicide, an accident or it was simply their time. One way to help recognize signs for causes of death was determined by William Bass. In 1980, Bass started the ‘Body Farm’ behind the University of Tennessee, it was where human bodies would be placed, so him and his graduate students could observe decomposition closely (Text 2017: page 180). They started off with issues such as: how long it would take for a body to become skeletonized, as well as determining if a body was moved since it died (Text 2017: page 180). To relate Bass’ work to modern day, if I were to conduct a study at the ‘Body Farm’ I would want to find out the difference between a body that was thrown off the top of a 30-storey apartment building and a body that was beaten to death.

The advancements in technology can be seen from relying on results of X-ray to focussing on computed tomography, commonly known as CT scan. In this, hundreds of X-rays are put together in cross-section, like slices of bread to create a three-dimensional virtual body. This change in forensic analysis has helped in researching on dead bodies to a great deal.

The purpose of the lab was to demonstrate that a lot of things can affect an enzyme’s active site. The lab used toothpicks as an alternative. This lab was conducted with four different experiments. There was an ideal condition which was to break as much toothpicks normally with a span of a minute. There was temperature which was to break the toothpicks with really cold hands using ice water to cool the hands. There was also effects of other molecules which was using 25 colored toothpicks and 25 normal toothpicks. If the participant breaks the toothpicks that are colored, it doesn’t count. Finally, effect of a denatured enzyme which was to cross your fingers and break the toothpicks. Data was collected by writing the amount of toothpicks broken

Bernard Spilsbury, the forensic pathologist whose advice was sought out regarding some of the more macabre details of “Mincemeat” prior to this, was once again consulted but this time he was asked for his opinion on how to best preserve the corpse aboard a submarine. Spilsbury had explained that oxygen caused the rapid decomposition of a corpse however, “if most of the oxygen had previously been excluded” (71) from the container and it was airtight, then the body would remain perfectly useable for the deception operation (it would not decompose too

The victim laid in the upstairs bedroom, smeared with blood. Their limbs had been amputated harshly, and a thin cut ran across the base of the woman's throat. I stood with a couple other officers from my squad, examining the crime scene. We'd been called a few minutes earlier, when the woman's neighbors found her. It looked like she had been dead for a couple days, with flies beginning to swarm the body.

Looking around the room, he could see that it was some sort of autopsy room, even though, neither body had been touched. He went over to a cupboard and opened it. There were all sorts of medical instruments on shelves in there. He had little idea of what they all were for but one instrument